5th
Sunday of Easter (Year C)
First
Reading: Acts 14:21-27 Second
Reading: Revelation 21:1-5a Gospel
Reading: John 13:31-33a, 34-35
“A NEW COMMANDMENT I GIVE TO YOU – 'LOVE ONE ANOTHER AS I HAVE LOVED YOU.'”
One day, as Blessed Mother Teresa and her Missionaries of Charity Sisters were tending to the poorest of the poor on the streets of Kolkata, they happened to pass across a man lying in the gutter, very near death. He was filthy, dressed in little more than a rag and flies swarmed around his body. Immediately, Mother Teresa embraced him, spoke to him softly and began to pick out the maggots that were nesting in his flesh. A passerby was repulsed by the sight of the man and exclaimed to Mother Teresa, “I wouldn’t do that for a million dollars.” Her response was immediate, “Neither would I!”
Obviously,
monetary
gain did not motivate the diminutive woman known as 'The
Saint of Kolkata';
love did. In her writings, Mother Teresa frequently quoted Jesus'
new commandment,
and affirmed the motivating power of love. She often used to say, 'We
must grow in love, and to do this we must go on loving, and loving,
and giving, and giving, until it hurts - the way Jesus did.'
We are in the Easter season and today is its 5th Sunday. The season of Easter reminds us of the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus and it is a celebration of 'new life,' which has come to us through our Risen Lord. What do we mean by this 'new life?' Have we experienced this 'new life' this Easter or, for that matter, in any previous Easter? Or does the Easter experience simply pass by and nothing happens?
Our Scripture Readings for today are a mixed group, but each reflects the Easter message of 'new life.' All three of them inevitably speak about 'newness,' and at the same time stand on a firm common ground and build blocks over it, ever raising it tall. The Gospel Reading speaks of a new commandment of love, which is the foundation and heart of Jesus' teaching and his message. The First Reading speaks of new converts and new communities formed and founded by the Apostles, here on earth, on Jesus' new commandment of love. And the Second Reading speaks about a new heaven & a new earth and a new Jerusalem, after our life here on earth, which is the attic apartment and the culmination of Jesus' new commandment of love. Let us consider each of them:
The New Commandment...
Our
Gospel text today is oddly a look backward. It is taken from St.
John’s version of the Last Supper and for obvious reasons, it
deserves first consideration. Today's Gospel passage actually follows
the presumed Last Supper meal, then the example of Jesus washing the
feet of his disciples (including those of Judas), continuing with the
lesson in theological reflection on that example of service, then
Judas’ departure from the assembly, and finally the bestowal of the
'new
commandment.'
Jesus has washed the feet
of his foot-weary table companions, and has thus provided an example
of what it means to love. What he has done for them, they are to do
for one another. In other words, no form of service is too menial for
a Christian disciple, and privileged exemption from service of others
has no place in gospel living.
Judas'
departure sets the scene for Jesus' last Discourse. Events have been
set in train that will culminate in God’s victory over evil and
death. The die is cast; there is no going back now. Jesus' 'hour'
has
come. Jesus begins by speaking about his 'glorification,'
i.e., his passion,
death
and resurrection.
He says, "The
Son of man is glorified and God is glorified in him."
The
Son of Man is glorified both in his willingness to obey God even unto
death and in the fact that God will glorify him by making his
sacrifice effective for the salvation of all. By pouring out his life
for us, Jesus not only saves us, but also gives us a perfect example
of what love is.
However,
this is not the end of the disciples' association with Jesus. He will
surely leave them very soon, but they are to continue on the way of
discipleship. In today’s Gospel passage Jesus says to them, “I
give you a new commandment: Love one another. As I have loved you, so
you also should love one another.” This
is an example-based
and reciprocal
love commandment and this is Jesus' legacy to his disciples; and this
is Jesus’ legacy to us too.
So, what is 'new'
about Jesus' commandment? In
order to glean the radical quality of Christ’s 'new'
command, we must be able to grasp the true
depth
of his love:
The
Hebrew Testament tells us 'to
love God with our whole heart and soul and so on; and to love our
neighbors as ourselves.'
Jesus has added a new
element
in telling us that the true test of discipleship is to love other
people in the same way “as”
he
has loved us.
Here,
Jesus himself has given the measure
of his love for his disciples which includes us too. This is really
to love
without measure
as he had shown it on the cross when he gave his life for our
redemption - which is sacrificing
and self emptying love.
And
we might remember that this event speaks of the greatest
possible love
that a person can show; i.e. by letting go of one’s very life for
others. Also, this kind of
love is not selective. Neither does it depend on love received. He
offers it freely to everyone. His is an all embracing, universal
love.
Actually, there
is an enormous significance in the fact that Jesus called his 'a
new commandment.'
The mandate is part of the new
covenant,
and new
economy of salvation
and represents a departure from the old covenant which confined love
to one’s neighbor; i.e. to another Israelite, or to resident
aliens. Jesus’ new commandment calls for an
unconditional love
- without limits, qualifications or prerequisites.
Finally, Jesus also says
to them, “This is how all will know that
you are my disciples: if you have love for one another.”
Love is not only the mark or characterization of
Christian discipleship, it is also its primary task.
In accordance with the 'new'
testament of Jesus, as he was about to offer his life-giving
sacrifice on the cross, Christians must live out the call to
fraternal charity. This is the sign
of the Christian in the world, the irrefutable, immediately
verifiable proof of Christian identity.
The Newly-formed Communities...
In the First
Reading of today, we continue to hear from the Acts of the Apostles,
which describes the early Church and its activities in the years
following the Resurrection of Jesus. Today's text
is an account of the completion of the 'first
missionary voyage'
of the Apostles Paul and Barnabas
in the Mediterranean area, mandated
by the Church of Syrian Antioch.
They are now retracing their steps back home. Along the way, they pay
a pastoral visit to Churches that they had founded and formed. There
is a 'newness' in the
newly-formed communities in the early Church:
Firstly, we see that the
new
commandment of love
was at work in the heart of Paul and Barnabas as they were willing
to be persecuted for the sake of the Gospel. Having already
experienced sufferings and rejection, the Apostles tell the
Christians that suffering is part and parcel of their lives. They
urge them to shine in a service of love in the Lord Jesus. Their
mutual love included encouraging the new converts, and setting up a
structure of 'elders'
as leaders to direct the believers in the early Church and to ensure
continuity with the faith. With prayer and fasting, they entrust them
to the Lord in whom they had come to believe. This
description of the early Christian community will be repeated in the
Acts of the Apostles, “See
how they love one another.”
Loving one another is the hallmark of Christianity.
Secondly, we see the
inclusion of the Gentiles in the early Church. The Apostles
started preaching the Gospel to the Jews first, in their synagogues.
But then Gentiles too started accepting the word of God and believing
in Jesus and his message. The
evangelist Luke summed up what happened through the entire ministry
of Paul and Barnabas on this first evangelizing tour—“all
that God had done with them”—in
the following terms, “God
had opened a door of faith for the Gentiles.” Christianity
is fundamentally an inclusive faith for everyone. And here in Acts
the inclusive circle gets bigger and bigger, going from the Jews to
the Gentiles.
A New Heaven and a New Earth...., The New Jerusalem...
The
Second Reading of today from the Book of Revelation is one that is
very familiar to many of us because it is often read at funerals. In
this John presents us with a vision of the end times, indicated in a
new heaven and a new earth when all the enemies of God
will be destroyed. It
is the glorious arrival of the long awaited “salvation
and the power and the Kingdom of our God and the authority of His
Messiah.”
The old order will pass away and the sea (the place of chaos and
evil) will be no more.
In
this new
order, God is imaged as one living in the midst of his people -
loving them and they loving him. The reading says, “The
home of God is among mortals.” We
hear those beautiful words which are reminiscent of God’s promises
to the Israelite people during the time of Abraham and Moses - “I
will dwell with them and they will be my people and I will dwell with
them always as their God.” Also,
the New
Jerusalem
is imaged as the Bride
of the Risen Christ,
which is the Church. The presence of the bride groom, Risen Jesus
himself, is a sign of joy. God promises that he will make all things
new in Jesus and all the old will be taken away.
Again, we have the verses
that help us to get through the sorrow of death. Once
we have passed on from this life and we have entered the Heavenly
Kingdom of God, we will have become immortal. God
promises he will wipe away every tear, and there shall be no more
death or mourning, wailing or pain, and all things will be made new.
Instead, they will only experience glory, happiness and peace. We
know that this has already happened through the death and
resurrection of Jesus – that kingdom has been established and
everything has been made new, and we await now for the completion of
that event.
Perhaps the
key that best unlocks the symbolism of this particular vision is the
divine proclamation, “Behold,
I make all things new!” This
promised newness reprized the prophecy of Isaiah, “Remember
not the events of the past, the things of long ago consider not; see
I am doing something new!”
For Isaiah’s contemporaries, 'something
new'
meant a
return home,
geographically to Judah after the exile in Babylon and spiritually to
God. Memories of past sorrows would soon fade before the shining joy
of a new
beginning. For John’s contemporaries, 'something
new'
meant an
end to persecution
and the beginning of a new
and glorious
life, which is the culmination of the 'new
love commandment' of
Jesus.
Today Jesus also says to us, “A NEW COMMANDMENT I GIVE TO YOU – 'LOVE ONE ANOTHER AS I HAVE LOVED YOU.'” The challenge of this teaching is enormous. Do we carry this central teaching into our lives? Do we give support to our fellow disciples and share our faith and our love with as many people as possible? It is through this constant love-centered interaction among each other that the 'new earth, the new heaven and the new Jerusalem' can begin to come into existence – not at some unknown future time and in some other place but here and now. Today. It is in our hands. All we have to do is follow the lead of Jesus the Lord, who is our perfect example.
To conclude: There
is
a story about a man who had a huge boulder in his front yard. He grew
weary of this big, unattractive stone in the center of his lawn. He
decided to take advantage of it and turn it into an object of art. He
went to work on it with hammer and chisel, and chipped away at the
huge boulder until it became a beautiful stone elephant. When he was
finished it was gorgeous. It was breath-taking.
A
neighbor asked, "How did you ever carve such a marvelous
likeness of an elephant?"
The
man answered, "I just chipped away everything that didn't
look like an elephant!"
Let
us then today if we have anything in our life right now that doesn't
look like love, with the help of God, chip it away! If we have
anything in our life that doesn't look like compassion, mercy, or
empathy, then, with the help of God, let us chip it away! If we have
hatred, prejudice, vengeance, or envy in our heart, for God's sake,
for the sake of others, and for our sake, let us get rid of it! Let
God chip everything out of our lives that doesn't look like love. And
this is the Good News of today.
**********************************
No comments:
Post a Comment